


Waffle Detective Squad

by Liminal_Space_LLC



Series: The World Only Spins Forward universe [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crushes, M/M, Sioux!Bully, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Speculating about Zimbits, Waffles, gossiping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 23:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16607081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liminal_Space_LLC/pseuds/Liminal_Space_LLC
Summary: Hops has found out some fascinating gossip about Captain Bitty and Jack Zimmermann, and he gathers the Waffles to do some sleuthing.





	Waffle Detective Squad

**Author's Note:**

> 4 days to go until The World Only Spins Forward is published!
> 
> I'm counting down the last ten days before I post my fic for the OMGCP Big Bang by releasing content from the world of the story every day. They will all be collected in this [tumblr post](https://liminal-space-llc.tumblr.com/post/179805915293/countdown-to-twosf), so if you enjoy this, go check it out :)

Bully nearly chokes on his milk when he sees Hops’s text: _Come to my room, 10:30_

He opens his phone as fast as he can to find all the messages from Hops:

_Waffle meeting!_

_Bitty let something slip_

_Come to my room, 10:30_

Bully only hates himself a little for the flurry of images that had gone through his mind when he read _Come to my room, 10:30_. He really needs to get over this whole Hops thing he has going. He’s barely known Jon for more than a month; that’s hardly enough time to actually get any sense of who he is as a person. But Bully is already eighty percent sure Jon is the sweetest, goofiest, most thoughtful guy he’s ever met.

Bully just needs to keep his cool. He sucks so bad at making the people he’s interested in like him. He scared off, like, three potential friends in the USHL just because he actually tried to make them like him, but he accidentally made friends with everyone else on the team. So if he just acts like a normal person around Hops, he thinks he has a fighting chance of at least being good friends. And maybe he can get Jon to go on a date, if he’s lucky.

This strategy is tested as soon as Louis lets him into his and Hops’s room. The moment Bully is in, Hops jumps out of his bed and strikes a pose. “Hey Bulls! Got all my Samwell swag today. I’m looking good, right?” He’s decked out all in Samwell red, and the shirt is doing really nice things for his shoulders, and Bully scrambles to think of something normal to say.

“Um, you look pretty alright.”

Hops beams back. “Thanks, SB. Anyway, get in here. I have news!”

Bully takes his usual spot on the comfy rug Louis’s mom bought during their group Ikea trip and turns to face Hops, who is perched on very edge of his bed.

“Okay, Mr. Landmann, Mr. Short Bull, I present to you: a major find.”

“Skip the theatrics,” whines Louis, “I’ve been waiting for hours.”

Hops flashes his round-cheeked grin. “Okay, okay. So, today while I was peeling apples, I think I found out that Bitty and Jack became soulmates at the end of Bitty’s sophomore year.”

Bully sits up a little straighter. This is news. They’ve been quietly trying to figure out when Bitty and Jack Zimmermann became soulmates ever since they got to Samwell. “Was it from Bitty himself?” he asks.

“Kind of? He was talking about Jack, and he said their soul anniversary is in April.”

“Å, that’s interesting,” Louis muses, “So, April of Bitty’s freshman year he wasn’t into Jack according to the videos, right?”

Bully, as the only one who seems to be able to keep Bitty’s vlogs straight in his head, nods to confirm. “Right.”

Hops adds excitedly, “And his sophomore year, it was the Frozen Four!”

“Okay,” Louis says slowly, “but they lost the Frozen Four that year.”

“So?” Hops stares back at him fiercely. “You can lose and become soulmates!”

“Yeah,” Louis allows, “But next April was the playoffs! And Jack won all the time.”

“Soulmates are not about winning! Winning a hockey game will not make you soulmates with anyone,” retorts Hops.

“My friends have always become my soulmates after wins,” Louis says, as if that’s solid proof.

Hops groans with frustration. “Okay, but that’s probably because you were being good teammates. You can lose and be a good teammate, and I bet Bitty really helped Jack after they lost the Frozen Four ‘cause he’s a great teammate.”

“But he supported Jack all through the playoffs! And it makes so much more sense for them to kiss at center ice if they became soulmates recently,” Louis argues.

Hops turns to look at Bully on the floor. “What do you think, Bully?”

Louis turns to stare as well, and Bully tries to assemble some kind of coherent response. He’s never had soulmates from his hockey teams before, though his dad did, but he’s pretty sure his dad and Uncle Jim got their names during the offseason while staying with their grandparents at Rosebud, so that doesn’t really help. “Well,” he says slowly, “if they became soulmates in April, the kiss at center ice would have been about two months later. That’s a long lag time.”

Hops grins triumphantly, but Bully continues, “However, the videos say that Bitty started dating Jack during April. Which would mean they didn’t start dating until after getting their soulmarks, which is really improbable.”

Hops frowns at him. “But Bitty thought Jack was straight. Of course he wouldn’t ask Jack out before getting his soulmark.”

“Jack knew Bitty was gay, though,” adds Louis, “Why would he wait until they were literally soulmates to ask Bitty out? Like, they were already super close.”

Bully nods. “Yeah. They’d done the pie project already. And from Bitty’s twitter you can definitely see that Jack liked him.”

Hops pouts and slides off his bed onto the floor. “I guess you guys are right. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Of course Jack would ask him out before they got their soulmarks. It must have been during the playoffs.”

All of Hops’s excitement seems to have left him, and Bully can’t stand to see him so deflated. “Good job getting the info, Jon.”

“Yeah! How do you get Bitty to tell you all this stuff? I never hear anything.” Louis bumps Hops on the shoulder, and Hops cracks a reluctant smile.

“Thanks guys. I think it’s the accent. I make him feel at home.”

Bully shakes his head. “Nah, you’re just nicer than us. You could get anyone to talk.”

Hops gives him an appraising look, and Bully wants to kick himself. He’s supposed to be acting normal, not giving out compliments. He continues hurriedly, “You guys wanna do homework?”

They end up doing their reading piled onto Hops’s bed as usual, listening to one of Louis’s study playlists, and it’s all totally normal and chill.

Until Hops falls asleep on him.

Bully isn’t sure how much more of this he can take.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you want to read more of my things, I am on [tumblr](https://liminal-space-llc.tumblr.com)!
> 
> The rest of the countdown is [here](https://liminal-space-llc.tumblr.com/post/179805915293/countdown-to-twosf)!


End file.
